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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

condom in pocket. We're here again.

331 replies

worriedbee · 16/01/2011 17:40

I found a condom in DP's pocket while doing the washing the yesterday. Done some snooping and came up with a text message in his phone "Yeah I had a great time x"

The rest of the texts are deleted.
Not great is it.

Possible mitigating factors:

  • the condom is one of ours. We have just been away - perhaps he picked it to take away.
  • there were some lying about (our room in a tip with stuff after returning after holiday!) perhaps he picked it up because it was lying about.
  • he has lots of friends, male and female, the text could be innocent I guess
  • he always deletes his texts every so often (phone old and crap so not much memory)
  • he's not hiding his phone from me or acting suspicious in any other way

Still, really not great is it.

We've been getting on really well. I know that's no indication of fidelity.

We've been here before. Bugger. Sad

Last time I suspected cheating, after much soul searching I challenged him, and ended up feeling completely reassured. I don't feel I can challenge him this time. If I'm going to challenge him again I would need solid proof I think.

OP posts:
RumourOfAHurricane · 18/01/2011 13:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Mouseface · 18/01/2011 13:14

'cock muncher' Grin

Shiney is right.

As others have said too, it's better to have two happy parents, living apart than two parents living together with no trust or respect, living on a knife edge, waiting for him to let you down.

Again.

worriedbee · 18/01/2011 13:41

I'm not afraid of confronting him, I just don't see what good it will do to do it again at this point. He will just reassure me he's faithful, like he did last time, and I will be none the wiser as to whether he's telling the truth, unfortunately.

Actually I seem to remember last time I was convinced I wanted to have it out with him and people were warning me not to! (they said I should get more evidence) so I can't win here!

But then if everyone agreed on mumsnet it wouldn't be mumsnet would it?

OP posts:
worriedbee · 18/01/2011 13:46

I don't think that any man is better in my family than no man!

I want this man, my DP, the father of my child, and the man I love to be in this family.

Sheesh!

I'm not afraid to be on my own. I'm lucky that I don't have the financial worries many have when considering being on their own. (Please don't translate that as I'm loaded, I'm certainly not unfortunately. Just that the house is in my name, I'm free to do what I want with it.)

This is getting ridiculous.

OP posts:
madonnawhore · 18/01/2011 13:48

Well what are you going to do then? It could take you another 4 years of this worry and insecurity before you get the concrete proof you need, by which point he would have been mugging you off for 8 years.

bubbleymummy · 18/01/2011 13:49

Ok I didn't read the whole thread so obviously there's a bit more to this but shiny, that was a bit rude. (not that you'll give a crap anyway but there you go)

bee, sorry that I read your post wrong. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

worriedbee · 18/01/2011 13:51

Thanks bubbleymummy Smile

OP posts:
worriedbee · 18/01/2011 13:52

What am I going to do? Good question but I don't know yet. I'm thinking it through at the moment.

OP posts:
Mouseface · 18/01/2011 13:52

Bee

What's getting ridiculous? The conflicting advice?

I'm sorry but you've posted on here, telling us what has happened now. People are trying to help you from what I can see/

You can't carry on not knowing if your DP is having affairs or not can you?

Do you want to live in fear that you're never quite sure if he is being honest or not?

It's just my opinion but I couldn't live like that. And in fact, it took me 2.5 years to realise that I wasn't going to anymore.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 18/01/2011 13:55

This is going to go round in circles for the foreseeable future, because you seem to be having the same scripted conversation (either internal or with him), every time you suspect infidelity.

You tell us that you spent years in relationships with abusive men and then you became abusive yourself and had affairs involving what you admit were elaborate deceptions. That whatever issues these men had, they were not unfaithful and you were therefore able to believe that you were truly adored. Well, that's the first flaw in your belief system, but it's one that many women have, that fidelity equates to adoration.

You say that even if there were no concerns about fidelity in your current relationship, you suspect you would still have concerns, because you don't feel adored in the way you have been used to in the past. Perhaps too, because you haven't yet had an urge yourself to be unfaithful in this relationship, you are placing it on too high a pedestal?

I'd urge you to reframe your former partners' adoration and see those relationships with more clarity. Just because they weren't unfaithful does not mean they adored you and loved you. Their other behaviours suggest that they didn't at all.

Now on to this relationship. You are not married and got together in a rush, precipitated by the birth of your child. It just doesn't sound as though you have ever had an honest dialogue about your feelings for eachother, or the challenges of remaining faithful to one another, which is all the more bizarre given your pasts.

The only time you seem to have a conversation about your feelings towards one another or fidelity is when you suspect he is being unfaithful. Because you equate adoration with fidelity, I wonder whether this explains your resistance to what seems to be staring you in the face? That if you found incontrovertible proof of infidelity, that would mean you had to finally face up to the fact that he doesn't adore you?

I think you've deleted a more recent thread or possibly name-changed for that one. By my recollection, 4 years ago you found a condom in his washbag after an overnight work do. He told you that he had put it in there "out of force of habit" and you bargained that one away, subsuming the nagging doubt that the fidelity that night had been controlled by the absence of a willing partner.

Then one of your own condoms went missing and you uncovered meetings with a friend who was so unknown to you that it didn't occur to you that he had a unisex name. I believe there was a deleted thread/name-change after that with more suspicions and now we've got this one, involving an attached father going out of the house with a condom in his pocket. Unless I am very much mistaken, I believe the last incident involved a condom about his person and he managed to persuade you that he was carrying it around to use with you, if an opportunity arose, outside of the bedroom.

This latest incident would be suspicious alone, but when it is the third or fourth condom-related incident, it beggars belief that your partner doesn't want to have sex with someone else.

Dittany is right that the infidelity isn't the only problem here. Your lack of awareness about his feelings for you is one of the biggest elephants in the room, but you are focusing on infidelity and then ignoring the evidence, perhaps because you don't want to acknowledge the bigger issue and because you continually confuse fidelity with adoration.

You are right that at the point of infidelity, an unfaithful partner does not adore his primary partner, either by design or because of longstanding detachment, but being faithful does not equate to love and adoration.

RumourOfAHurricane · 18/01/2011 14:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

worriedbee · 18/01/2011 14:23

WhenwillIfeelnormal an insightful post, thanks.

Just to clear up a couple of things.

I've posted on this under worriedbee and worriedbeeagain. Yes that was me posting about the washbag and the friend with a unisex name (same name as a female work colleague). But you're confusing me with someone else about him having a condom on him and saying it was to use with me, that wasn't me.

The reason I say my exes adored me is not particularly because they were faithful, but because they showered me with love and compliments all the time. They were constantly telling me how much they loved me, how great they thought I was, how pretty they thought I was etc etc.

What I meant there is after being used to this, I think I would find it difficult to be in a relationship with any man who's crap at showing his feelings. (However I'm well aware those relationships weren't functional!)

I think you're right though on some things.

"The only time you seem to have a conversation about your feelings towards one another or fidelity is when you suspect he is being unfaithful." you're right about that. The only time we've every really talked about his feelings is when I've pushed the subject when I've accused him of being unfaithful. However then then, he's said all the right things. He does tell me he loves me, and does do sweet things which make me feel loved. Just not very often.

He did warn me early on that he's rubbish at talking about feelings. Although infuriating that in itself isn't a reason not to be with someone - although that's not to say he shouldn't try harder. And I think this is where I'm coming to in my thinking. We need to have a frank discussion about more than just fidelity.

OP posts:
welshbyrd · 18/01/2011 14:33

Having read half the thread.

For what its worth, I agree with you OP, about talking to him would be a waste of time, YOU DO NOT TRUST HIM, so now matter what he would say, you would not believe him, Im a firm believer, NO TRUST, relationship can not work, with work trust can be repaired to a degree, your partner has not helped you to get it back.

Even before you posted on here OP,you already knew how your going to deal with this, ignore it, look for more evidence, sit in the house while he is out wondering, while you confidence is being knocked even more.

Does not matter what advice you are given, you can not help/advise someone until they are ready for it.

Advice you have been given, has not been taken, in fact to a degree that your almost defending your partner.

I do not know whether he is a cheat or not, looks pretty likely.

I have not read your previous threads, but it appears this is not his first offence. Seems once bitten twice shy, does not apply with you.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 18/01/2011 14:50

Okay, I knew you had another thread so thanks for giving us the name change and sorry for thinking that was about another condom-related incident. However that "missing thread" gives yet more insight; a strange text when he was on a night out that you thought wasn't for you, hiding his computer activity when you entered the room and suspicions that an imminent overnight visit to see a friend, had ulterior motives.

OP, love is an action and all the pretty words from your former partners do not equate to love. In fact, their actions suggest quite the opposite. Perhaps because this man doesn't shower you with loving words, you have made a bizarre leap that because he is different, he does love you. That's not a conclusion I'd reach at all, based on what you have posted.

Think about this logically. Just 6 months ago you had a major showdown about your infidelity fears. When you came on to that thread to give the "happy ending" update, you reported that he definitely wasn't being unfaithful and told you he loved you after all. You didn't tell us how he accounted for the previous 2 condom incidents, the dodgy text and computer behaviour and your fears about his frequent nights out.

Having been through all that turmoil in July, if a man truly loved you and wanted to convince you of his love and fidelity, would he six months later, leave a condom in his trousers knowing that you would find it and have a new mass of insecurities? Would he be that contemptuous and cruel?

dippiyas · 18/01/2011 14:52

Hi i had the same problem in the beginning of our marriage i was pregnant at the time. He went out with his mate didnt tell me where he was going, never did. Anyway he came in next morning, left the clothes he was wearing from night before on the bedroom floor and went to bed. I checked his pockets like you do when you not sure where your husbands been and found a condon in his jacket pocket. I went mad confronted him and his excuse was that his friend was wearing the jacket so he must of put it there, lets just say i didnt believe him one little bit!

nogreatexpectations · 18/01/2011 15:03

"But I don't see any way forward without knowing for sure. I simply cannot wreck my DS's family life on a hunch." worriedbe Smile should be commended not insulted for showing a distinct lack of selfish will and having a responsible attitude. Why attack a women for wanting the right thing, not just for herself but also for her son.

Worriedbee, is there a possibility that if you confront him without evidence and he is having a fling, he will lie and this gives him the opportunity and foresight to become more coniving and clever in covering his tracks. If it's early days in the affair he will deny it and this makes it more difficult to confront him again should you have greater suspicions.

If he isn't having a fling it will cause damage to the relationship because he will forever feel that you don't trust him (has some benefits though, he will be less likely to think he can deceive you and get away with it!) bit like telling a child that mummy has eyes in the back of her head!

I think watch and wait is a good option whilst also having an honest chat about your need for him to be more expressive with his feelings.

findingthepath · 18/01/2011 15:10

I have spent all day on and off reading this thread and there has been some good advice which you have ignored.

Butas i have spent my time reading all this i'm going to add my own bit of advice.

Make an appointment at relate and get a babysitter. Two days before tell him that you have made the appointment and if he is ok with going with you to sort your turst isses out.

Then when you are there tell him every dout you had and this last one and then in front of someone else wait for his answers.

The thrid person will be able to read his repones and help you get to the bottom of it. You can then evaulate all aspects of your relationship. If he is not willing to go then its the nd of the relationship as it takes two people to have a relationship and he clearly is not willing to work on it with you.

If he does go then it might improve things between you.

Also if he is cheating then you can have help getting hrou it.

IMHO you are not in a healthy relationship and life is too short to be messed around by someone who is not worth it.

If you look at it from his point of view he gets you to do his washing, cooking, pay bills look after his child and have sex when he wants with you but he can also go out and take any oppertunty to have sex with other people.

Its a pretty nice life for him isn't it?

It seems to me that he ha all the power and is abusing it.

Really you need to go to relate and get it sorted out. As someone elsesaid a relationship isn't about just sex or ferdelty. It takes a lot more to make a relationship work but turst is important. Currently you dont have it.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 18/01/2011 15:18

NGE a relationship is never more important than the mental health and wellbeing of the participants. Continuing in a relationship blighted by perpetual mistrust and insecurity is never worth it. Something needs to change here, but that something isn't the OP learning to quell her unease and doubts. They are there for a reason.

worriedbee · 18/01/2011 16:45

thanks nogreatexpectation, I agree with all you've said, and yes I do need to have an honest chat about my need for him to be more expressive with his feelings.

WhenwillIfeelnormal I am well aware that my previous relationships were dysfunctional, and also that love is an action not words. I am just saying that I'm used to being showered with praise, and now I'm not it's not surprising it feels odd.

I don't think he is being contemptuous or cruel leaving the condoms about - that's out of character. I think he is being a prize idiot - whether a cheating one or not.

OP posts:
worriedbee · 18/01/2011 16:46

I don't fancy relate. Not at this point. I'm sure he'd go if I really asked him to.

OP posts:
nogreatexpectations · 18/01/2011 16:52

I don't think all people who experience difficulties in their relationships are in danger of it effecting their mental health. Happiness also comes from within, not something entirely dependant on the good will of others. Which is why I suggested individual counselling too.

AnyFucker · 18/01/2011 17:28

"I don't fancy Relate"

Why the heck not ?

findingthepath · 18/01/2011 17:30

So if you dont fancy relate, you dont want to confront him, you dont want to spy on him, is that right?

So what do you want to do? What do yo want people to say?

findingthepath · 18/01/2011 17:32

I wanted to say that but i didn't want to sound mean AF Grin

dittany · 18/01/2011 18:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.